At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.

Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. A case that comes from such repertoires is the Turkish song “Nevah Ouchak Canto - Katefe Jastiim”.

On the label of the record, the song is characterized as "kanto". In other words, it is considered part of the repertoire of the kantolar, a term that seems to have been first used by Turkish-speaking Muslims mainly in large urban centers and especially in Constantinople (Istanbul) since the time when Italian troupes performed there. Although initially the kantolar were associated only with theatrical music, they soon became autonomous, when the term "kanto" (singular form of kantolar) came to describe any popular and light secular singing forms (see Pennanen, 2004: 9, O'Connel, 2006: 276, Beşiroğlu & Girgin, 2018: 49).

In addition, on the label of the record, the name of the makam on which the composition is based is written (Neva Uşşak).

The title of the song in Turkish, "Kadife yastığım (yok)" could be translated as "I don't have a velvet pillow". According to Stelios Bermperis, this is an older title of the song "Kadifeden Kesesi".

The song appeared in Turkish discography from the third decade of the 20th century and was also recorded in the following decades. For example:

– "Nevah Ouchak Canto – Katefe Jastiim", Yaschar Bey [Hafız Yaşar Okur Bey], Istanbul, 1923–1926 (Odeon xC 2954 – X 46386), this recording
– "Jeni Katifeli Kanto, Katifeden Kesesi", Derviş Abdullah Efendi, Istanbul, 1923–1926 (Odeon X 46417)
– "Yeni kadife", Hafız Burhan Sesyılmaz, Istanbul, probably in 1930s (Columbia 12360)
– "Kadifeden kesesi", Urfali Cemil Cankat, Istanbul, 1951 (Columbia 17924)
– "Kadifeden kesesi", Hamiyet Yüceses, Istanbul, 1959 (Odeon CO 4549 – LA 170705 b)

We also note the recording "Kadife Cantosu", made in New York in 1948 by Marko Melkon Alemsherian in Turkish (Kaliphon 713-A).

This specific tune has also penetrated the Greek-speaking repertoire under the title "Kantife" or "Katifes". According to the data collected so far, the song was recorded eight times in Greek historical discography, a number that undoubtedly reflects its popularity:

– In 1926, Soultana K. Poulou recorded the song twice in New York, both for the Greek-speaking market, under the title "Ta oraia sou matia»" (Pharos 454-2 – 832), and for the Turkish-speaking market, entitled "Kadife yastığım yok" (Pharos 453-2 – 812).
– "Kantife", Antonis Dalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, June 16, 1928 (His Master's Voice BF 1732 – AO 224)
– "O katifes", Kyria Pipina, probably Constantinople (Istanbul), December 22, 1928 (Homocord C 89-1 T – G-4-32072)
– "Katife (Mpahrie tsifte teli)", Grigoris Asikis, Athens 1928 (Columbia UK 20283 – 8270)
– "Katife", Vangelis Sofroniou, Athens 1929 (Odeon Go 1406 – GA 1432)
– "Katife", Marika Politissa (Frantzeskopoulou), Athens 1930 (Odeon Go 1470-2 – GA 1435)
– "Katifes", Roza Eskenazy, Athens 1930 (Polydor 132 ba –V-51079 and Electrophone 132 ba – P 9001-A)
– "Katifes", Dimitris Atraidis, Athens 1930 (Polydor 1422 BF – V 50559)

Between June and July 1948, Jack Mayesh recorded the tune in New York under the title “Du tus lavios corre miel” (Me-Re Records Balkan 6002 B – 6002 B) with lyrics in Ladino, that is, in the Spanish-Hebrew dialect of the Sephardic Jews.

Jack Mayesh was born in 1899 in Kuşadası, in the Ottoman Empire. In 1920, he married Flora Salmoni, a resident of the island of Rhodes, born in 1903 in the city of Pordenore, in northeastern Italy. More information about both Mayesh and the Sephardic repertoire in general in historical discography can be found on Joel Bresler's extremely informative webpage www.sephardicmusic.org.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis